Africa-Press – Cape verde. Chinese exports to Portuguese-speaking countries had their best start to a year ever, rising 2.3% in the first three months compared to the same period in 2024, according to official data.
According to information from the Chinese Customs Service, released on Monday, goods sold to Portuguese-speaking markets up to March reached 19.7 billion dollars (17.3 billion euros).
This is the highest value for a first quarter since the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (Forum Macau) began publishing this data in 2013.
The data released reveal that the main reason for the new record was Angola, whose imports from China more than doubled, to 1.58 billion dollars (1.39 billion euros).
Even so, and despite a year-on-year decline of 2%, Brazil continues to be the largest buyer in the Portuguese-speaking bloc, with Chinese goods from China reaching US$15.8 billion (€13.9 billion).
In third place on the list, now behind Angola, is Portugal, which bought products from China worth US$1.48 billion (€1.3 billion), 1.3% more than in the first three months of 2024.
In the opposite direction, exports from Portuguese-speaking countries to China fell by 30.1% in the first quarter of 2025, compared to the same period last year.
Between January and March, the Portuguese-speaking bloc sold goods worth US$24.5 billion (€21.5 billion) to the Chinese market.
This is the lowest figure for the first three months of a year since 2020, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The decline was mainly due to the largest Portuguese-speaking supplier to the Chinese market, Brazil, whose sales fell by more than a third (34.1%) to US$19.3 billion (€16.9 billion).
In addition, China’s second largest trading partner in the Portuguese-speaking bloc, Angola, saw its exports fall by 10.6% to US$3.87 billion (€3.42 billion).
Similarly, sales of goods from Portugal to China fell by 14.4% to US$635.3 million (€557.5 million).
In contrast, exports from Mozambique rose by 18.5% to US$484.5 million (€425.2 million).
Equatorial Guinea’s exports to the Chinese market fell by almost a third (32.1%), to US$204 million (€179 million).
Sales from Timor-Leste and São Tomé and Príncipe also shrank by 97.4% and 53.2%, respectively, although neither country exported more than three thousand dollars (around 2,600 euros) in goods to China.
Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau did not sell any products to the Chinese market in the first three months of 2025.
China recorded a trade deficit of 4.79 billion dollars (4.21 billion euros) with the Portuguese-speaking bloc between January and March.
In total, trade between Portuguese-speaking countries and China reached 44.2 billion dollars (38.8 billion euros), 18.6% less than in the same period last year.
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